New photo workflow

I have a new photo workflow. I'm pretty pleased with it as it now means I can keep all of my workflow on the tablet or phone. Here's the thing I've realised that my main love of photography is not for creating incredible images. Sure some of my work is better than others, but I'm more about documenting the moment. This is why I have soooo many photos 20k and counting. I also have really taken to blogging. I just want to leave a mark on the planet with words, images and video. When I'm dead and burried that is all that will be left.

I've discovered a pretty cool tool for batch editing snapshots. Perfectly clear. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Here's the workflow.

1. Shoot photos
2. Delete the naff ones
3. Run through perfectly clear
4. Tweak any proper lush ones
5. Rename files
6. Upload to Flickr, Google Photos, FTP
7. Publish to blog if I feel like it

A pretty simple and slick process all in all. Frankly stuff that comes straight out of the camera these days is so good, that post-processing is a bit of a waste of time. Worth a go though.

Test

When you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls

”When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls”

This is why black and white is so powerful. I’ve been experimenting with black & white and more street photography. Specifically, I want to use B&W to improve my photography skills in these areas:

• Identifying the subject
• Telling a story
• Portraying emotion
• Removing distractions
• Revealing textures
• Capturing the “human condition”
• Understanding light
• Identifying contrast
• Playing with abstract

There is something about shooting in black and white that strips a photograph to its essentials: Light and composition. I think practising this will go a long way to improving my overall photography.

My current photo workflow

Here is my current photo workflow and back-up plan. This is the plan for my better than average pics, not generally rubbish shots of food etc.

TAKING PHOTOS

- Take photos with native iPhone app
- Take photos with Olympus Pen EPL-1 Micro 4/3 DSLR - shoot in RAW format

EDITING PHOTOS

- iPhone photos get edited with Snapseed, right on the iPhone. I'll document the process for this soon enough.

- DSLR photos either get:
    - Edited on the Macbook in Adobe Lightroom. JPEGs out of the camera look ok, but RAW always need edits.
    - JPEGs transferred to Android Tablet and edited in Snapseed.

SHARING PHOTOS

Typical process involves browsing to the Snapseed folder then:

- Instagram: I usually post to Instagram first. Instagram doesn't allow full frame pics, so there is always a cropping decision here. If I'm feeling lazy I'll check the box to post to Facebook. Sometimes I'll add a bit of a filter, but usually all editing is done before the photo gets to Instagram.

- Flickr: I have an IFTTT recipe that auto posts from Instagram to Flickr so I'm good there. The only drawback to this approach is Instagram massively compresses Photos, so my Flickr images are taking a bit of a hit. Going to need to think about this going forwards. I was a bit fan of Flickr for a long time, but gradually found myself using Instagram more, perhaps because none of my real life friends use Flickr.

- Twitter : Simple - copy and paste the description from Instagram, then post pic to Twitter

- Facebook: I Have been forced to download the horrible Facebook app. I used to be able to post through safari, but tagging and location has become difficult. If I haven't posted through instagram, I'll upload through the app.

- Blogger: I have a private personal blog hosted on Blogspot. I post diary type images up here. Typically they are sent in three ways. 1. Through the app 2. Via email to private address. 3. Through the web app.

BACKUP

A pretty important part of the process and something that I need to improve. I typically have photos backed up in the following:

- Macbook - current year's DSLR Pics
- 2 TB HDD - back-up of every digital photo
- Flickr Private Account - A full backup of every digital photo
- Flickr Public Account - A backup of my best public photos
- Google images - A full backup of every digital photo

CLEANUP

Something I need to improve - but I have too many files. I take a lot of photos. There is not a single day that goes by when I don't take a photo. Many of these are trash, so I need to get rid of them. I also need to get better at sticking photos in Albums or tagging them, as I take more photos I want to be able to get back and find the photo I liked two years ago.

That's it for now.

A few quick tips for a friend who asked me about taking photos with an iPhone.

I Don't mind you getting in touch at all, hope all is good with you. In fact I'm flattered by the kind words. I take all of my mobile photos with the standard iPhone camera app. Where things then change is in the editing of the pictures to improve the picture or get the feel you want.

I use an app called Snapseed. It's very easy to learn and start getting good results. There are some excellent tutorials here: http://iphonephotographyschool.com/tag/snapseed/ .

Actually that website is a great resource for inspiration. But the two key things I think have improved my photography more than anything:

1. Learning about composition http://iphonephotographyschool.com/composition-tips/ - (tip - you can recompose a photo by cropping afterwards.)

2. Deciding what the subject or story of the photo is, and getting rid of as much distraction from the story as possible.

Other than this, just take loads of photos and play with snapseed. Follow inspiring blogs or instagramers to get inspiration and ideas. You'll soon find styles of photos you really like, and these styles will start making their way into your shots.

Hope this helps, and you are going somewhere nice - enjoy :)